PurpleSkyz

Why did Hurricane Michael leave cities with an electric purple sky as it engulfed Florida?Purple sky over Cleveland, Ohio as Hurricane Michael engulfed FloridaAn Ohio motorist has filmed the night sky appearing to glow a magnificent electric purple over the city of Cleveland. The bizarre celestial light has left many struggling to explain the strange phenomenon.Captured by Youtube user Jbreez216 as he was driving around Cleveland, the footage depicts a strange hue above the city. Completely freaked out by what he is seeing, the eyewitness puts his camera out the window of his moving vehicle to prove it’s not a trick reflection on the windscreen.

“Look at the sky, why is it purple like that?” the motorist says in the video. “That’s crazy. I thought it was my [window] tint for a second but… that’s out the window. That’s crazy.”Filmed on October 13, after Hurricane Michael struck the state, it’s almost certain the bizarre light was caused by the weather. However, a definitive reason has yet to be settled on by shocked viewers, and many theories are circulating online. Some claimed that the strange coloring was a result of peculiar happenings in space or even a portent of a biblical, end-of-days event.Lake City referred to in the below tweet is actually in Florida, which experienced a purple sky like Ohio did:

However the actual scientific reason for the coloring is much more mundane. It has been put down to a thing called “scattering,” where often violet or blue light of the setting sun becomes the dominant light in the sky.

Purple sky over Lake City, Florida during Hurricane Michael in October 2018. via Twitter“Molecules and small particles in the atmosphere change the direction of light rays, causing them to scatter,” a University of Wisconsin spokesperson told Cleveland 19 News.Purple sky over Lake City, Florida during Hurricane Michael in October 2018. via Twitter“Scattering affects the color of light coming from the sky, but the details (the colors) are determined by the wavelength of the light and the size of the particle.”Purple sky over Lake City, Florida during Hurricane Michael in October 2018. via TwitterWhat do you think it was? About a year ago, a mysterious light column appeared in a loud boom over Feliciano, Argentina… Also supposedly caused by a rare weather.